Alright, before you read this, I have to warn you. I can't remember who Max gave Ray to in the second season, so, I'm going to call her Aunt Becky. I'm terribly sorry if I'm wrong, but I seriously can't remember.
-Chapter Five-"We're here."
Max looked out the window at the house. Two lights were on, one downstairs near the front door, and another upstairs. Looking closer, she could see a big green tree through the upstairs window, though it wasn't decorated.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" she asked, looking over at Ames who was yet to leave the car. She punched his arm lightly, and his head snapped over to face her. "Get going, we don't have all day for him to pack so we can get moving."
Nodding slowly, though he didn't know why he was, he opened the car door and got out, walking around the large sized SUV as Max got out as well. Looking up into the second floor window one last time, he headed towards the door.
A young boy, looking the age of eight sat on a white rug, in the middle of two couches, and a huge pile of multi colored Christmas lights. He picked the ending of one up, and tugged it a little. With the little, light movement, it seemed like a giant creature of wires and lights jumped on him.
"Gah!" he said, trying, and pathetically, to get out of the tangled mess.
"This is insane!" he told himself. Lights were everywhere, and one even stabbed the poor boy in the eye. "That's it!" he said, jumping up and untangling him self from the wires. His arms seemed to move so fast that they blurred together before he was able to step away from the small lights that were a symbol of gifts and happiness.
He sighed. Aunt Becky had told him to wait. After all, she was only running to the store to get some dough for the pies they'd make tomorrow. But did he listen? No. His mother would've said that he was exactly like his father. That was probably true.
Walking over to the living room window, he looked out at the falling snow. It was nice here in Canada. It always rained in Seattle, but he'd always miss it. And when he had gone with Aunt Becky to San Francisco, he didn't like it. It wasn't home, and no place could replace Seattle. But at least Canada, especially British Columbia, had its rainy season that reminded him of his run down, broke, cold, wet, but his,hometown.
Smiling as he thought about it, he noticed a dark SUV roll up towards the house, and stop before the front yard. Ducking down, an old habit he had learnt quickly, he watched as no one got out, and the car turned off. It sat there for a minute, and the boy started to wonder who was in it. Then, looking closely, he noticed a tall man with brown hair step out of the driver's side in a suit, and a woman with longer dark hair step out from the passenger's side in jeans and a leather jacket.
A huge grin found its way onto the boys face, and fast. He sprung up form his position against the window, sprinting downstairs and almost running into the door when he forgot to open it in his joy.
"Dad!"
As they approached the door, Max hung back a bit, letting her self look at the decorations. All around the front yard were small trees and bushes, and more of them and lights strewn all over them. There was even a pattern. One tree had solid, glowing lights, while the one beside it had lights that would be bright, then fade, then come back again, and beside that, the bush had blinking lights. This went on and on the outside of the yard, and she found it amazing. Seattle didn't usually have this on the outside front lawns, let alone snowflakes falling from the sky. It all seemed unreal.
Looking back in front of her at White as he walked down the drive way, she heard the front door click, then slam against the outside wall. She didn't even see anyone come out of the house until a ball of red and black thabric launched itself at White.
She smiled, realizing the only one who it could be. White picked up Ray and held him close, and Ray buried his head into his fathers shoulder, saying things so fast they were completely incoherent. For a minute, they just stood there like that, until Ray picked his head up.
"Max!" he said, and if possible, the grin on his face grew bigger. White let him down and watched as his son ran over to the women behind him, hugging her waist and looking up at her.
"Hey Ray." she said, smiling back at him and ruffling his hair.
"Guess what guess what!" he said quickly. "It's almost Christmas! And my school gets out in a week!" he said, then grabbed her hand and dragged her over to his father, then grabbed his hand as well and dragged them both inside the house.
"You guys have to stay. My schools gonna have a big Christmas concert on the last day and you have to come!" he smiled up at them. "You will stay, wont you?"
Max looked over at White, not sure what to say. He didn't know what to say either. It wasn't like they planned to stay. Or that they could. The Conclave were on the way, and most likely way to close. They had to leave now.
The both of them made the mistake of looking down at the young boy. He gave them his best impression of a puppy dog, and he knew that they were puppets on string.
"So, you will, wont you?" he said sweetly. "Please..."
"Ray..." Max began, not knowing what to say to the poor kid.
"Ray! I'm - oh." said a light voice from the door, which made Max and White both jump. Becky, the one that had been watching over Ray all this time stood at the door, looking at the three of them oddly. "Max? Ames?" she questioned, thoroughly confused as to why they would be in Canada, let alone together, or in her home.
"Yup!" Ray said, jumping in front of the two. "They came for Christmas Aunt Becky!"
"No we didn't." Ames said. "Go pack your stuff Ray, we're leaving."
"Excuse me?" Becky said, shutting the door behind her and putting her hands on her hips. "You can't exactly just come down here and take him away you know."
Ames raised an eyebrow at this, and Ray and Max backed off the watch them argue it out from the stairs.
"He's my son. I'm taking him home."
"You can't. He has school! I got him into one of the best in the Province. You can't just take him out now."
"You want to bet on that?"
"You can't! They won't let him leave Ames."
"Then I'll go to the school in the morning and give them a good reason to excuse his absence in the last week, and the rest of the year."
"Hey Max," Ray whispered from beside her. "Wait here, 'kay?"
She nodded and he sprinted upstairs. She turned her attention back to the two adults in front of her.
"And what will your excuse be?"
"That he has to come back to Seattle. We're moving."
"And where will you be moving to?"
Ames paused, and Ray came downstairs, holding a black kitten out to Max.
"Cute huh?" he said.
"Very cute." she said, letting the cat rest in her lap.
"Some where very far away from Canada." Ames said, then turned to the X5. "You aren't going to say anything are you?"
"Oh no. I think you're doing quite fine on your own." she said, not looking up form the cat on her lap.
"The school won't let him out without both parents consent on paper Ames." Becky said, sighing.
"Then I'll write them a note." he sneered.
"I doubt that'll work." Max said, swatting the kittens paw. "If they need both parents consent, they most likely won't just take the signature of the father."
"But mom's not exactly able to sign a piece of paper." Ray pointed out.
"Then we'll go now." Ames said, but Max shook her head.
"They'll report him missing, and then we'll have your little buddies, and Canada police following us." she said, still playing with the kitten.
"Little buddies?" Becky asked, but was rightfully ignored.
"Then I suppose you have a plan?"
"Yes." Max said, but this time she did look up at him. "I say we stay here and wait it out. He can stay for the week if it means that we have less people on our backs."
"So you're staying?" Ray said, eyes lighting up like it was already his birthday and Christmas morning.
"Are you insane?" White questioned, moving to stand in front of Max. "We can't just stay here and give them a full week to find us."
"Listen," Max sighed, giving the kitten over to Ray and standing up. "You're thinking with the whole parental lobe of your brain, and I'm using training that out weighs yours. So, relax, spend some time with your son, and trust a little will ya?"
And with that, she climbed up the stairs and left them in silence.
White woke up slowly to the shifting of sheets beside him. Without opening his eyes, he knew she was doing something.
Earlier in the evening, they had been told that they'd have to share a room. Of course, this brought many refusals and threats from both adults, but they came to an understanding. If one of them crossed their side of the bed, the other would be able to break their finger.
Of course, he had a feeling that even if 452 rolled over on to his side of the bed in her sleep, she'd find a way to blame it on him and break his finger. It wasn't a comforting thought.
But, there was an upside. If she got up to leave, he'd know, and would be able to follow her.
As she was doing now.
Once he was sure that she left the room, he opened his eyes and got out of bed slowly, not caring to pull a shirt over his pajama pants as he moved to the door way. Looking out cautiously, he saw her slip down the stairs in the dark, and followed quickly. By the time he reached the fourth stair, she was already near the back, glass door, opposite of the front door they had come in through. Beside it was the keypad control to the alarm system, and he watched as she punched in the numbers with ease.
The red light turned green and she opened the door, leaving it slightly ajar. He followed.
Max moved quickly down a narrow hallway, not stopping at any of the doors until she reached the last one. She slipped in quickly and left it open, knowing that White was following her.
Across from the door, she practically skipped over to the computer, sitting down in the chair and turning it on.
"What are you doing?" whispered White as he walked in, closing the door behind him.
"I couldn't sleep so I decided to check tomorrow's weather." she said sarcastically, typing in the password when the computer screen asked for it. "Your son's a smart boy. Gave me the passwords over dinner by flipping through magazines and asking me questions."
"So you're going to raid her computer?"
"Hey, you wanna learn about a person, steal their wallet, palm pilot, and check their PC. This is standard stuff, you should know this." she tsk'd, searching through the computers hard drive quickly, committing everything to her photographic memory to go over later.
"Check her chat logs." White said, leaning on the back of the chair as the X5 worked. "Might be something in there."
Max obliged, opening the folder and started memorizing each e-mail address. Soon enough, the computer's clock said 5:00 am, meaning they had already been down there for an hour.
"Come on." Max said, hitting the power button on the computer tower in stead pushing shut down. "Ray said Becky wakes up for work at six."
With that, they went back up to their room and put the alarm back on, not seeing the pair of eyes watching them as they left.
-End Chapter-
Heh heh. All done chapter five! Maybe next chapter or so, we'll see what's happening back in Seattle. :)
Reviews-
aurora -
Heh... Thanks. I would never abandon a story. Maybe neglect it a little... (NOT ON PURPOSSE! I SWEAR!) But I always come back to it! And Max is important to White because a), she knew where Ray was, b), she apparently knows how to get around BC, and c), well, that'll come up later. Thanks for the review!
angelofdarkness78 -
Thanks for the compliment! Hope you liked this chapter too!
ontheDL -
Aww! Thank you! I promise to try and like, well, not neglect this story over the summer. I really do have plans for it, but sometimes, I can't put them into words, or the stuff that I need to lead up to the good parts. It really sucks. But thanks for the review, and I hope you liked this chapter as well!
And Thank You's to ayla3baby, sylvie, LoneCat, Lin, and Kelzaa !
Kasumi